LINGUISTIC MODELLING OF THE “SUV/WATER” CONCEPT IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ITS NOMINATIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE FIELDS

Abstract

The article examines the linguistic modelling of the “suv/water” concept in English and Uzbek through a comparative analysis of its nominative and communicative fields. Within the frameworks of cognitive linguistics and linguoculturology, water is interpreted both as a universal source of life and as a culturally loaded symbol encoding national values and worldviews. The research draws on explanatory dictionaries, literary texts, folklore, phraseological and paremiological units, as well as metaphorical expressions. The analysis of the nominative field reveals the core and peripheral lexical layers of the concept, represented by nouns, verbs, adjectives and set expressions that verbalize various states and manifestations of water. The communicative field encompasses syntactic patterns, stylistic images, proverbs, idioms and paralinguistic means that actualize water in discourse and convey ethical, emotional and axiological meanings. The findings demonstrate that, despite shared universal semantic features such as life, purity and renewal, the water concept is structured differently in English and Uzbek under the influence of specific cultural experience, religious traditions and national mentality. The study provides a theoretical and practical basis for applying a conceptual approach in intercultural communication, translation studies and language teaching.